Peter Fetterman Gallery presents William Klein’s first major exhibition in Los Angeles in 35 years: “William Klein: In Your Face!” Opening on Saturday, January 10th and running through May 16th, the exhibition offers an extraordinary look into Klein’s energetic perception of the world and his “no-rules” attitude toward the photographic medium. The opening reception will be held January 10 from 3–6pm.
William Klein (1926–2022) was born and raised in New York City before moving to Paris after World War II, where he studied at the Sorbonne and began experimenting with painting, graphic design, and film. His time between New York and Paris shaped his bold, unconventional approach to photography, while his curiosity led him to explore multiple forms of visual expression. Though he traveled widely, Paris remained his home and creative anchor throughout his long, prolific career.
Utilizing the main gallery space, the exhibition traces how Klein turned away from traditional elegance and toward the raw vital- ity of real life—its movement, unpredictability, and unscripted charge. Klein wasn’t interested in perfection. He was drawn to the pulse of everyday experience and the people around him, absorbing the lifeforce of wherever he was onto celluloid film. Instead of softening the chaos of the world, he embraced it. As Klein famously noted, “It’s not necessary to make order out of chaos.
Chaos itself is interesting.” For years, American publishers considered his work too messy, too confrontational, too unvarnished— too real. At a time when mainstream media favored glamour and idealized narratives, Klein insisted on photographing what was overlooked in plain sight.
Klein also transformed the photobook as a medium with his groundbreaking 20th-century works, including Life Is Good and Good for You in New York: Trance Witness Revels. The book’s radical immediacy challenged the conventions of the era and opened doors to new ways of sequencing, pacing, and reading images. This sensibility carried into his work for Vogue, where his unconventional techniques helped redefine fashion photography. His fashion images retained the same dynamism as his street work, capturing the elegance of the garments while setting them against the raw textures of urban life.
This exhibition brings together the grit, immediacy, and visual audacity that define Klein’s legacy. It’s a reminder that photography’s greatest power often lies not in polish, but in capturing life at its most alive.
William Klein’s raw, unfiltered approach to image-making ruptured the conventions of street and humanist photography, carving a new space for energy, confrontation, and directness in visual storytelling. His work feels especially urgent today, as photographers navigate questions of authenticity in an era of curated identities and mediated realities. Revisiting Klein’s revolutionary vision now underscores the enduring power of seeing—and showing—life as it truly is.
Trance witness revels
“The full title of my New York book is Life Is Good and Good for You in New York: Trance Witness Revels. I believe that these last three words sum up how I see photography. To me, the act of taking a photograph is a moment of trance in which you can capture many hundreds of things happening at the same time and through which you can feel them and see them, consciously or not.” ~ William Klein (1926 – 2022)
William Klein : In Your Face!
January 10th – May 16th, 2026
Peter Fetterman Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave Suite A1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
www.peterfetterman.com
